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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Product Review: Heat n' Bond Feather Weight

If you do fusible applique, then at the very least you have heard of the brand Heat n' Bond, if not used it yourself. There are a few good fusibles out there on the market, and I have found through trial and error that Heat n' Bond products work the best for me. Not that the others, like Steam-A-Seam or MistyFuse, don't work well; they do, but I like the results I get with Heat n' Bond better.

Anyway, so Heat n' Bond has developed and released their response to MistyFuse and the other very light fusibles, which is their Feather Weight brand. We got it in at the shop for Carol and I, since we do a lot of applique, to test and see what we thought. Our opinions differ. I like Feather Weight, and actually I prefer it to Heat n' Bond Lite (my previous staple). I concede, however, that Feather Weight has some...idiosyncrasies. But once you know how to deal with and counteract those quirks, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing to have on hand.

Feather Weight really is just that...it is light as a feather! I have a tendency to go for patterns and designs that pile layer upon layer, and so the thinner the fusible, the better. But like I said, there are some idiosyncrasies. When the fusible comes off the roll, Heat n' Bond has affixed the plastic instruction sheet to the inside (fusible) side of the roll. The adhesive is so thin that trying to pull that instruction sheet off without tearing a wide swath from the middle is both an exercise in patience and dexterity. I have found it difficult not to lose an inch or two from the end that I peel the sheet off of, but I have also found that once you get it started and it stops tearing, it can be ripped right off like usual. Also, if you pull the sheet off just a few inches past where you're planning to cut your piece off, the fusible won't tear when you go for another piece and have to tear the instructions off again.

Speaking of instructions, this is the one fusible where I do in fact follow them. You absolutely cannot use a higher iron setting on this stuff, because the fusible is so thin it'll just dissolve away if you do. It on;y takes a second or two to adhere it to your fabric, but once it's on there, it's fabulous. Because of its thinness, it's able to be repositioned on your applique. The drawback on that thinness though is that repeated ironing, when you assemble your applique, makes the fusible dissovle a little more each time so you may find your corners coming up as you stitch everything down if you're working on a more intricate project.

So with Heat n' Bond Featherweight, its assets are also its liabilities. I have found, however, that it is more beneficial than not and it's definitely a product worth giving a try.

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